|
The Government is committed to providing an efficient transportation
infrastructure to meet the challenges of population growth and continuous
development. The undertaking is to ensure public transport is readily available above
and below ground. It places particular emphasis on railways, and promotes and
encourages the use of public transport by ensuring quality service. It also manages
road use to reduce congestion and promote safety, and continues to support
environmental improvement measures in transport-related areas.
Railway development projects progressed smoothly in 2006. The construction of
the Sheung Shui to Lok Ma Chau Spur Line (the Spur Line), which will help relieve the
increasing congestion at Lo Wu and cope with the growth in cross-boundary rail
passenger traffic, is expected to be completed by mid-2007. The construction of the
Kowloon Southern Link, which will connect the East Rail with the West Rail at the
southern tip of the Kowloon Peninsula, started in 2005 and will go into operation in
2009. The construction of the Tseung Kwan O South Station started in 2006 and will
go into operation in 2009.
Several other railway projects are in the planning stage. The Sha Tin to Central
Link will extend the East Rail across the harbour and the West Rail to Ma On Shan.
The Government is reviewing the scheme under the Kai Tak Planning Review and
Wan Chai Development Phase II, as well as the proposed rail merger between the
Mass Transit Railway (MTR) and Kowloon-Canton Railway (KCR) systems. For the
West Island Line, the Mass Transit Railway Corporation Limited (MTRCL) has
completed the preliminary design and submitted the Revised Project Proposal in
August. As regards the Northern Link and the Hong Kong section of the Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Express Rail Link, the Kowloon-Canton Railway Corporation
(KCRC) is now conducting engineering and business studies as well as preliminary site
investigations.
There was also good progress regarding the development of road networks.
Construction work for the eastern section of Route 8 between Tsing Yi and Sha Tin
started in 2002 and would be completed in late 2007 (Cheung Sha Wan to Sha Tin)
and in stages between 2008 and 2009 (Tsing Yi to Cheung Sha Wan). The Hong
Kong-Shenzhen Western Corridor is scheduled for operation in mid-2007 to tie in
with the commissioning of the boundary crossing facilities (BCF) at Shekou. With this
addition of a fourth cross-boundary land crossing, it is expected that Hong Kong's
cross-boundary vehicle handling capacity will increase by more than two times. As
regards the proposed Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge, which will link Hong Kong
direct with Pearl River West, the governments of Guangdong Province, Hong Kong
Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) and Macao Special Administrative Region are
now tackling the outstanding issues of the feasibility study, including the locations of
the BCF and financing arrangements.
Implementation of the Intelligent Transport Systems Strategy continued during
the year. The scheme calls for deploying advanced information and
telecommunication technologies to improve the safety, efficiency, reliability and
environmental friendliness of the transport system in Hong Kong. It features two core
projects — the Transport Information System, which is under development, and the
Journey Time Indication System, the first phase of which has been put into operation
on Hong Kong Island.
|
